Tasia Fortune, Jackson, Mississippi hanging death leads to arrest of Jacques ‘Jock’ Ratliff, with more arrests expected after mom of 4’s death ruled a homicide amid concerns that racism and lynching in the deep south played a part.
Mississippi authorities have arrested a man more than a month after a young ‘black’ mother of four was found hanging from a tree.
Tasia Fortune, 29, was found hanging from a tree in the backyard of a vacant home in Jackson, Mississippi, on August 3.
It wasn’t until Thursday that Fortune’s death was ruled a homicide with Mississippi authorities arresting Jacques ‘Jock’ Ratliff, who was taken into custody on Capitol Street Thursday night.
More arrests anticipated in ‘homicide case’
‘Last night, the medical examiner’s office officially classified Miss Fortune’s death as a homicide. With that determination, our investigators moved quickly,’ Jackson Police Chief RaShall Brackney said Friday, according to CNN.
The police chief indicated more potential arrests.
‘This case remains active and additional arrests will be pending,’ Jackson Police Chief RaShall Brackney stated according to WLBT.
Brackney who declined to discuss the case only said that the suspect, a 51-year-old black man knew the victim. It remained unclear in what capacity the two knew each other or whether DNA evidence led them to Ratliff while alluding to Mississippi’s troubled ‘racist’ past.
‘We understand the questions and the desire for answers given Mississippi’s history,’ Brackney said. ‘We understand this case is being viewed through a broader lens, a global lens, and we do not dismiss those concerns. We are taking them seriously.’
Police have interviewed nearly 15 people, gathered forensic evidence and followed several leads in the case.
‘We owe it to Miss Fortune, to her family and the integrity of this investigation to let the evidence guide us,’ Brackney said.
Tasia Fortune’s hanging death leads to comparisons of Mississippi’s racist lynching past
News of an arrest led to Fortune’s mother, Christy Spivey, breaking down according to the outlet.
‘I just started crying and told them ‘thank you, thank you, thank you,’’ the grieving mother said.
The case has left the family with many unanswered questions. Spivey said authorities had not yet told her a motive or explained what evidence led investigators to the suspect.
Fortune’s body was discovered behind a vacant house in the 500 block of Road of Remembrance in west Jackson. The hanging has triggered the local community amid remnants of previous hangings and lynchings involving black individuals in America’s historically racially segrated South.
However, Fortune’s own mother has said she does not believe her daughter’s death was racially motivated.
‘I really don’t feel like it was a racial crime,’ Spivey previously said. ‘I think that this was more of a personal crime.’
Spivey has remained steadfast that her daughter did not take her own life.
A life of struggle amid unanswered questions
Spivey said the last time she saw Tasia was in late July, when her daughter traveled to Kentucky for a family reunion. They went swimming, ate together and spent time as a family.
Her mother remembered Tasia as being in a good place emotionally.
‘She was better than I had seen her in a long time. She was at peace,’ Spivey said.
She was a daughter, a sister and a mother of four — and her family has spent weeks fighting to make sure what happened to her was not forgotten.
Tasia Fortune’s life had not always been easy. Her family said she spent time in foster care before running away at 16 and eventually making her way to Mississippi. She struggled at times with homelessness and addiction, but her family described her as loving and caring and said she repeatedly returned to Jackson in part because she wanted to remain near her children.
Before Thursday’s arrest, another man, 65-year-old Terence Anderson, had been questioned during the investigation and arrested on an unrelated charge of being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm. Investigators said Anderson acknowledged arguing with Fortune but denied having anything to do with her death. He has not been charged with killing Fortune.
To date, investigators have not disclosed a motive or what led up to Tasia Fortune’s homicide death.
The hanging comes with two other people have been found hanging from trees in less than a year in Mississippi including that of 21-year-old Trey Reed, a Black student at Delta State University in Cleveland, Mississippi and Cory Zukatis, an unhoused white man in his 30s, in Vicksburg, Mississippi. In both instances police ruled their deaths as suicides.
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